Semana Dos!

Hola!

Okay. I am so sorry. Normally we have P day on Tuesdays but I found out last week that our P day would be on Thursday this week (today) because guess why? We went into the city to Migration to take care of more visa stuff! It was very cool to drive around the city. We left at 7:30 in the morning and got to the migration office around 9:30, I think due to traffic. It was great to be out of the CCM. The city is so huge! Once we got into the more reformed rich area there was a different feel but you go down two more blocks and it´s back to really poor rough areas and graffiti everywhere. It made for a fun trip though. On the way back, the bus-driver took the more scenic route so we could see things like the Palacio de Bella Artes. It was fun!

I am still healthy and well! Hermana Guerlain got sick this week so we took turns going on "splits" (being with another companion) while she stayed home. I am washing my hands as vigorously as ever to stay healthy; that has been one of the hugest blessings while being here. I know that Heavenly Father is watching out for me. The bugs still really like me though, especially the spiders. I have some gnarly spider bites on my legs and ankles but thankfully they haven´t made my soft face into a pillow yet (that one is for you Dad wink wink) haha. Anywho, by the way, HAPPY FATHER´S DAY DAD! Thank you so much for your encouraging emails and advice. I truly appreciate it. I am feeling a lot of growth and am working a lot on patience.

This week we began teaching two new investigators -- Gabriel and Estefania. It is so interesting just how much one investigator varies from the next. That, along with an amazing devotional from Elder Holland that we watched on Tuesday, have taught me how any gospel lesson or principle can be adapted and applied to anyone. We have learned a lot about how to begin teaching this week and really getting to know someone. It is fun to just talk to people...well, it´s fun to listen to my companion talk to people. I throw in a scripture and testimony and a really long drawn out patched up sentence in Spanish every few minutes. I am really trying but it is difficult. Oftentimes I leave a lesson feeling a bit discouraged because it is just so hard to teach. I really enjoy it though and it will get better as I keep working! Yesterday we had 7 minutes to prepare a 20 minute lesson by ourselves for a guy who was driving under the influence and killed three people in an accident (we watched a video about the investigator and then prepared the lesson). Then we taught it to another missionary in our district. It was a neat experience. I surprised myself at how much Spanish I actually do know. I didn´t have to read directly from “Preach My Gospel” or a script or anything. In preparation, I just read over "Our Life Here on Earth" and "The Atonement", found a few scriptures, and went for it. The lesson went really well. Yesterday we also had our first experience teaching real people, not just a CCM teacher pretending to be an investigator. This is called TRC and it is completely random as to whether we will teach a member, a convert, or a real “investigator” (a person who is interested in learning about the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). It was amazing. Hermana Clark and I first taught an older woman and her two grandchildren, ages 5 and 8. THEY WERE SO ADORABLE. The little girl told us about how she had been baptized in March and she recited the first “Article of Faith” for us. Then we taught a young man who just got back from his mission in Spain 3 months ago. I realized just how much I love the people here already.

As for my daily life, on a typical P day we wake up, study, eat breakfast, study, do laundry, clean our room, eat lunch, play sand volleyball for forever, write emails, study, eat dinner, study, and go to Tuesday night devotional. P days are so nice. On a typical day the rest of the week (excluding Sundays which are full of lessons and classes and devotionals and the random chance that you will have to give a talk in sacrament meeting), we wake up at 6:30 and get ready, study from 7 :00 to 7:30, eat breakfast, study from 8:00 to 9:00, have class with Hermano Hurtado until 11ish when we teach our morning investigator, plan and study from 12:00 to 12:30, eat lunch, have gym time from 1:30 to 2:30 during which we play sand volleyball (SO MUCH FUN), get ready, have class at 3:00 with Hermana Perez until 4:30ish when we teach our afternoon investigator, study some more until 6:00 when we eat dinner, go to TALL (a computer language program created by BYU), from 6:45 to 7:45 language study from 8:00 to 9:00, daily planning from 9:00 to 9:15, and then we call it a day and get to bed by 10:30. Tuesday nights we have a devotional instead of TALL and language study which makes Tuesday the best day to have P day. Some days are long and others fly by. Honestly I am grateful to always be busy and have something to do. It´s just good clean fun and work all the time :)

Thank you so much for all of the updates from home! I love reading about what you are all up to and have some good laughs from the stories :) It sounds like it has been a great week welcoming Colby back from his mission and sending off three of the best missionaries out there, Elder Gunnell, Sister Hatch and Sister Anderson. I was thinking about them all day yesterday. I am so excited for them and their families! It sounds like Camp Helaman was a great experience and Girls Camp will be a blast as always! I miss it so much! Mom, you are the best camp leader there ever was :) Have so much fun this week. Thank you all so much for the Krispy Kremes! You don´t know how happy that made me. I actually went into a sugar coma last night and woke up at midnight with a stomach ache because I had eaten 5 that afternoon and evening. Oops. Everyone around me appreciated them as well. Krispy Kreme deliveries are a common occurrence here actually. What is not so common is getting 2 dozen of them! Thank you so much, I love you guys :)

I may not have time to send pics today but I will for sure this coming Tuesday. Have a great week everyone! 

Love, Hermana Jones (sometimes pronounced “Ho-ness” by people here. I love it!)